Supes raise age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21 — lawsuit possible

Natalie Richards, 19, smokes a cigarette as she sits with her friends Ben Rose, center, and Chase Melich, right, in a Designated Smoking Area at San Francisco State University as supervisors consider a plan to raise the purchasing age for tobacco products to 21 in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, February 29, 2016. less

Natalie Richards, 19, smokes a cigarette as she sits with her friends Ben Rose, center, and Chase Melich, right, in a Designated Smoking Area at San Francisco State University as supervisors consider a plan to ... more

Natalie Richards, 19, smokes a cigarette as she sits with her friends Ben Rose, center, and Chase Melich, right, in a Designated Smoking Area at San Francisco State University as supervisors consider a plan to raise the purchasing age for tobacco products to 21 in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, February 29, 2016. less

Natalie Richards, 19, smokes a cigarette as she sits with her friends Ben Rose, center, and Chase Melich, right, in a Designated Smoking Area at San Francisco State University as supervisors consider a plan to ... more

Young people will have to wait until they are 21 years old to buy cigarettes legally, under legislation passed unanimously by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

The legislation by Supervisor Scott Wiener makes San Francisco the second major city, after New York, to raise the age to purchase tobacco from 18 to 21. Mayor Ed Lee’s spokeswoman said he would sign the bill, which would also apply to e-cigarettes.

The legislation could lead to a lawsuit: The National Association of Tobacco Outlets has said it may sue the city because, it claims, state law preempts the city from lowering the age to purchase tobacco.

Wiener struck a defiant chord at the board meeting and said the city would not be “bullied” by the tobacco lobby.

“Our city has a history of taking on major industries in the name of public health — in the name of consumers — and winning. And we will do so here,” he said. “Our law does not in any way interfere with or undermine state law.”

Thomas Briant, executive director of the Association of Tobacco Outlets, said its board will “review the situation and decide whether to bring legal action.”

In a letter to the supervisors opposing the legislation, Briant wrote that because the California penal code makes it illegal to sell tobacco products to people younger than 18, the “California legislature intended to exclusively regulate the issue of the minimum age to purchase tobacco products.”

Efforts stall elsewhere

The Sonoma County town of Healdsburg passed legislation raising the age to purchase tobacco to 21 last summer, but decided not to enforce it after legal threats from the tobacco association.

A Los Angeles councilman has also pushed for similar legislation, but those efforts stalled after the Los Angeles city attorney concluded state law preempted a local government from raising the legal age, Briant wrote in his letter to the supervisors.

Statewide legislation to raise the minimum age to 21 to purchase tobacco, the same threshold as for alcohol, has stalled. However, the movement is gaining traction nationwide. Santa Clara County and Hawaii are among roughly 80 governments around the country that have raised the tobacco buying age to 21.

In San Francisco last year, roughly 11.3 million packages of cigarettes were sold, generating $2.26 million in revenue for the city, according to the city treasurer’s office.

According to San Francisco’s Youth Commission, 5.4 percent of San Francisco’s high school students smoke.

Reactions to the legislation were mixed among young San Francisco smokers.

Smokers on both sides

Natalie Richards, a 19-year-old freshman at San Francisco State University, said smoking is a social activity that has helped her make friends. She said the city should focus on more pressing problems, like human trafficking and homelessness. And, she added, the legislation won’t stop her from smoking.

“Whether they are legal or not, I’m still going to get them and still going to smoke them,” she said.

But Derek Brown, a 26-year-old senior at San Francisco State University, said he supported the legislation. His friends began giving him cigarettes when he was 17, and he started buying his own packs at 18.

“If I would have started smoking at 21, then I would be smoking less,” he said. Raising the age to purchase tobacco will allow “the body to grow in its own way without any of the poison that comes from cigarettes.”

San Francisco has long been at the forefront of legislation aimed at curbing smoking and has banned smoking in restaurants, bars, playgrounds, parks and taxis; on public transit vehicles, wharves, docks and athletic fields; and at bus stops, golf courses and even charity bingo games.

A cutting-edge local law in 2008 banned the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies, and the city this year banned the use of tobacco products at ball fields, including AT&T Park, where the Giants play.